3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) has introduced LTE (Long Term Evolution) into the Release 8 version of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) standards. With LTE, the UMTS air interface is further optimized for packet data transmission by improving the system capacity and the spectral efficiency.
A current topic in the 3GPP standardization fora is the study on further advancements of LTE (Long Term Evolution), also referred to as LTE-Advanced. One of the key characteristics of LTE-Advanced is the support of bandwidths >20 MHz and up to 100 MHz by spectrum aggregation, i.e. the bandwidth of an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) radio cell is divided into a number of so-called component carriers (CC), wherein the bandwidth size of each component carrier is limited to a maximum of 20 MHz. Further, in view of the market potential, 3GPP decided to support MTC (machine type communication) in future releases of the UMTS system, and agreed on the service requirements.
Efficient methods for supporting machine type communication and for using communication resources in general in mobile communication systems are desirable.